"COMMERCIAL CIVILISATION ”

New Zealand Tablet, 18 November 1920, Page 37

"COMMERCIAL CIVILISATION ”

Any person who is inclined to be proud of modern civilisation should take an early opportunity of reading a volume of essays entitled Commercial Civilisation, from the pen of W. Hinchy (published by the Southland News Co.). The books deals in a critical manner with almost every phase of our commercial, political, industrial and domestic existence, and though the effect is marred considerably by a verbosity which at times becomes tedious, there is much shrewd reasoning and co'mmonsense behind it all. The style in which the essays are written may be seen from the following quotation: “The politician, very often a derelict from the scrapheap of commerce or the froth boiled over from one of the professional trypots, crams the few brain cells ho possesses with some of the hackneyed phrases from the dry dust of an obsolete political economy, sucks sundry, everyday ideas from commonplace thinkers on the pavements of a muddled municipality, cultivates an acquaintance with the children of the electors, memorisess the names on the roll of suffrage, compliments the mothers upon the health, beauty, and intelligence of their offspring, and having smiled and bowed and handshook every possible and probable elector, he settles down to the most difficult task of the lot —to find out upon which side of politics is the greatest number of votes.” The object of the author is. to show how deeply, and with what terrible effect, commercialism has eaten into our institutions, how money-making has come to be considered the noblest aim of the human being, and how, when the unbridled desires of the money-makers clash with principle, the latter is thrust on one side with as little care as if the Ten Commandments were a joke. Avarice is named as the besetting sin of the modern man, and, in the words of the writer “the curse of greed and arrogance is written across the face of civilisation.” In the article “The Freedom of the Subject,” the first false note is struck. Prince Bismarck is quoted as having said that “'freedom was a luxury that few could afford, and fewer still knew how to use.” Wo~ are then treated to the following;—“I apologise for quoting the Father of present-day Hunnism, but the remark is so full of pertinent application and truth that I trust I shall be forgiven for permitting it to pollute these pages.” Cant of this kind, may very well be dispensed with. He seems to have forgotten that he has been tolling us that we are a pack of commercialised knaves, for later we find him rambling on about something which ho is pleased to term “British Honor,” which he asserts is the “bulwark of Democracy throughout the world.” God help Democracy! The evils of the day are traced to the vile education system which, rooted in materialism, directs the efforts of the pupil to money-making exclusively. Wo agree with the writer when he says that “when the pursuit of gain and dollar-worship grows to bo a passion and a fetich, and produces in a nation a state of public mind in which moral atrophy and callous indifference to the rights of others is a predominant centre round which every private, social, and political movement finds activity, then it is to be expected that the elements which make for continual quarrelling amongst the. people are present in sufficient quantity to keep the country in a continual state of disagreement and unrest.” The remedy which he proposes, however, is certainly not calculated to stem the growth of greed, for he tells us that “we must tickle the passion of avarice by offering sufficient money to purchase the individuality, brains, and ability of men capable of lifting our schools out of the rut of mediocrity, and training our boys and girls not only to be enterprising and progressive citizens of a great nation, but to be noble and honorable in their enterprise and jealous of the justice of their institutions.” Thus avarice is to be killed by men who are induced to work for avaricious motives, and materialism slain by platitudes and heart-to-heart talks! It is passing strange that our would-be reformers are always anxious to experiment with their own petty remedies, but rarely, indeed, have they the courage to ask the people to forsake paganism and return to Christianity. Nevertheless, in spite of what has been said, the book is worth reading, not because of the remedies for evils which it proposes, but because it shows the existence of evils. J. R.